
r\ BUSHED f.\ H P*MOORE, GOXCORD, N. II. 



a 



MOUNT MANSFIELD 



-A.isrr> its Eisr^rii^oisrs- 



fiews Mid Bketdnes. 



mount mansfield and its environs, 3 

The Route, 7 

The Summit House and Barn: Chtn in the Distance, 8 

Lake of the Clouds, from the Chin, 10 

Old Man Mansfield: Mouth of Cave, Nose, and 

Summit House in the Distance, 13 j 

Nose and Profiles, from the Summit House, 13 j 

Nose and Summit House, from the East Side, . . . . 14 I 

Mount Mansfield, from Stowe, 15 

The Smugglers' Notch, lfi j 

The Mammoth Spring, . ,20 

Moss Glen Falls and Cascade, ../T . . 22 




CONCORD, N.H.: 

PUBLISHED BY H. P. MOORE. 

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by H. P. Moore, in the Clerk's Office 
of the District Court of New Hampshire, 









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%m1 



w 




rafieto, 



AND ITS ENVIRONS. 

— HS»» aB 3 ^ H — 

MOUNT MANSEIELD may justly claim to be the 
mountain of the Green Mountains of "Vermont. 
And considering its out- towering proportions, the un- 
rivalled prospect it commands, and the peculiarly pic- 
turesque beauty of its rich and varied surroundings, it 
may, indeed, well be classed among the most remarkable 
mountain elevations any where to be found within the 
whole compass of New England. It is remarkable as 
having been the first part of the State to attract the eye 
of Captain Champlain, the discoverer of Vermont, while 
entering the lake that bears his name, — remarkable in 
location, as marking just forty-four and one half degrees 
of north latitude, — remarkable in shape, as strikingly 
resembling the face of a man lying on his back, the Nose 
and Chin forming the two distinct and highest peaks, — 
remarkable in altitude, as the highest mountain in the 
State, and measuring almost five thousand feet above the 
level of the ocean, and almost four thousand above the 
immediately surrounding country, — remarkable as nearly 



*- 



19 

i MOUNT MANSFIELD. 



the centre of the more than forty square miles of green, 
primeval forest, which heavily clothes its precipitous 
sides, and through which the bald summits seem to have 
broken, and shot up into the face of the clouds, — 
remarkable as rising at once and so boldly out of the 
midst of a smooth, well-cultivated, and populous agricul- 
tural district, whose productive farms and thriving vil- 
lages close up on both its sides to the very foot of the 
steep ascent, — and finally and especially remarkable for 
the grand and unusually extensive views it affords of 
nearly the whole of the northern, and a large portion of 
the southern half of Vermont, from New Hampshire to 
New York, together with extensive reaches into the inte- 
rior of each of the latter, and of Canada. 

As you stand on the Chin, where the purely talcose 
slate bed rock of the mountain, here tapering up to a 
point, forms the highest pinnacle of the highest summit, 
your eye takes in, at one circling sweep, the whole vast 
area of country, from the White Hills of New Hampshire 
to the shadowy Adirondacks of New York — a tract of 
nearly one hundred and fifty miles in extent. But your 
eye is first attracted to the objects lying more immedi- 
ately around, or within the near vicinity of the moun- 
tain ; and, turning to the east, you look down from 
shelf to shelf and ridge to ridge, over the dark, shaggy 
forests, rapidly falling away in confused perspective from 
your feet, until your eye, gladly escaping from the wil- 
dering maze of wooded cliffs, disjointed hills, and inter- 
secting gorges, gratefully rests on the smooth, cultivated 
farms below, dotted with human habitations, and beauti- 
fully variegated, in their season, by the different and del- 
icate shadings of the growing crops of the flowing green 
maize, the lighter tinted cereals, and the luxuriant 



%. 



MOUNT MANSFIELD. 5 



grasses for which Vermont is so noted. And then, as 
you lift your eye over the expanding landscape, you 
behold all the beauties and contrasts that so peculiarly 
characterize American scenery, lying in picturesque com- 
bination, and spreading out far and wide to greet the 
delighted senses. The many and multiform dark wooded 
mountains, the darker corresponding valleys, the thou- 
sand intermingling hills and ridges, with their long, hazy 
dales and sequestered glades, the alternating squares of 
field and forest, the winding streams with their glancing 
waterfalls and cascades, and the wood-girt lakelets, 
sparkling up through the trees like silver threads, and 
bright gems interwoven and set, as if to light up and 
beautify the more sombre aspect of the groundwork ; 
and lastly the solitary farm-houses, with their cosy, sur- 
rounding openings, the more social-looking hamlets, and 
the ambitious white villages gleaming, at intervals, 
through the fringing tree-tops, and sending up their 
hundred church spires to mark their progress in arts and 
civilization, — these, all these lie spread out before you 
in their brightest beauty and magnificence. And over 
all these the gratified eye wanders on and on, till the 
vision, growing dim in the blue distance, at length rests 
on Mount Washington, which lies low outstretched on 
the extreme verge of the eastern horizon, like white 
wreaths of foam driven upon some distant beach of the 
ocean. 

As you turn your view westward, your eye passes 
down over another intermediate wild labyrinth of moun- 
tain and hillside forests, long, swelling ridges, dark ra- 
vines, glittering streams, pleasant openings, and cluster- 
ing villages, till it is greeted by tlw long, bright line of 
the waters of Lake Champlain bordering the valley of 



MOUNT MANSFIELD. 



the western expanse. Beyond this rises, in their wild, 
arnphitheatric pride and glory, range after range of the 
towering Adirondacs, whose variant peaks, growing 
less and less in the far-reaching perspective, at length 
mingle with the sky at their last visible outpost, the 
cloud-piercing Mount Marcy. Along this stupendous 
pile of mountains the eye courses down northward, until 
their gradually diminishing forms are lost in the broad 
valley of the mighty St. Lawrence, whose silvery waters 
are seen gleaming up in the far distance, as if to light 
and guide the view to the glittering spires of Montreal 
on its western banks. 

And lastly, as you turn to the north and the south, 
the strong, boldly-marked, raised chart of the two dis- 
tinct ranges of the Green Mountains, with their interme- 
diate spurs, extending through the whole length of the 
State, and marked, at intervals, by the out-towerin"- 
Montgomery and Jay peaks, in Vermont, and the Owl's 
Head and Mount Belisle, in Canada, on the one hand, 
and Camel's Hump, or the " Crouching Lion," Groton 
and Killington peaks, and the far-off Ascutney, on the 
other, completes the rich expanse of this magnificent 
picture of mountain scenery, which Mount Mansfield, 
with a favoring atmosphere, will furnish the gratified 
beholder who may be at the pains of ascending its com- 
manding summit. 

Other mountain tops may afford views of all the rug- 
ged grandeur that has been ascribed to them, but none, 
in the whole United States, as is affirmed by those who 
have ascended them all, exhibit views and prospects 
which, in the various combinations of the picturesque, 
the beautiful, and the sublime, surpass, if they equal, 
those of Mount Mansfield. 



at- % 

THE ROUTE. 7 

Having thus given a general outline description of this 
noted mountain and its surroundings, we will now pro- 
ceed with our notices and explanations of the accompa- 
nying views, taken to delineate some of the most inter- 
esting points of its varied scenery. For the benefit of 
the travelling public, however, we will first describe the 
best, and for most tourists, indeed, the only practicable 
route to the mountain. 



THE ROUTE. 

IN describing the route to the mountain for tourists com- 
ing from the West and the East, over the Vermont, 
Canada and Central railroads, and arriving, with that 
view, at the flourishing village of Waterbury, whose rail- 
way station is the nearest one to the place of ascent, we 
can do no better than to quote from one well known to 
the public: "Leaving the Vermont Central railway at 
Waterbury, the tourists are taken by the stage of Messrs. 
Hawley & Durkee ten miles to Stowe, thence by the 
livery teams of Messrs. Seaver & Wilkins to the top of 
the mountain. The roads from Waterbury to this place 
have been very much improved since last year. Through 
public and private enterprise, over three hundred dollars 
have been expended upon the road from the base to the 
top of the mountain, this season. By these means, 
tourists may now go by carriages, and in entire safety, 
to the Half- Way House, within a mile and a half of the 
top. The balance of the ascent, to the door of the Sum- 
mit House, is accomplished on horseback, and without 
the least peril or discomfort. The stage men and livery 
men are all prompt, courteous, and obliging, their horses 



2* 1 

8 THE SUMMIT HOUSE AND BARN. 

strong and sure-footed, and their carriages durable and 
safe." 

We might as well say here that Stowe is a neat, pleas- 
ant, thriving business village of about five hundred in- 
habitants, who are intelligent, kind, and attentive to the 
wants of the visitor ; this, with the beautiful scenery and 
pleasant drives about, renders it a desirable place for 
summer resort. Here is found the "Mansfield House," 
one of the best hotels in the country. 

The distance from Stowe over the smooth and pleasant 
river road to the foot of the mountain, is about five 
miles ; and from that up the still further well- wrought 
and safe carriage road to the Half- Way House, being half 
the distance from the base to the top of the mountain, is 
one mile and a half. At this romantic mountain-side 
opening, with its convenient cottage and stables, tourists 
leave the carriages for a little rest, to take a draught of 
the cool crystal waters of the copious fountain, and the 
trout pond adjoining, both here found to lend interest to 
the place ; and then, to accomplish the rest of the ascent, 
they mount the well-trained and sure-footed horses pro- 
vided for the service, an interesting specimen of which is 
the noted Ned, a Canadian pony, that, with a few signifi- 
cant shakes of the head, as much as to say, " I am equal 
to it," scrambles up the steepest rocky ascents with the 
agility of an Alpine chamois. 

I. THE SUMMIT HOUSE AND BARN : 

Chin in the distance. 

HP HE Summit House, represented in the first of the 

-I series of the accompanying views, taken by H. P. 

Moore, artist, of Concord, New Hampshire, in the fall 



»- 3 

THE SUMMIT HOUSE AND BARN. 9 

of 1860, to delineate the scenery of Mount Mansfield, 
owes its existence here on the top of this towering moun- 
tain, where such a structure could be so little expected 
to appear, entirely to the enterprise and taste of the Hon. 
William H. H. Bingham, of Stowe, who, mainly with 
the view of making this great natural observatory of 
Vermont what he has since made it, became the chief 
proprietor of the whole mountain. The front or main 
building is one story and a half high, fifty feet in length 
by thirty in breadth. The rear building, joined to the 
main one, and running back at right angles with it, is 
one story high, twenty-four feet wide, and forty feet 
long, exclusive of a projection thrown out at the farther 
end for a kitchen appendage. The front building, which 
was of course intended for the occupation of guests, 
while the rear one was designed to be devoted to the din- 
ing room, kitchen, and lodging rooms for the servants, 
contains two rows of neat, airy, and sufficiently spacious 
bed rooms, running the whole length of the building 
above, and several below, together with a suit of hand- 
some withdrawing and sitting rooms, the whole of which 
is capable of furnishing the best of accommodations for 
a large number of guests. In accordance with the good 
judgment of the proprietor, not a yard of lath and plas- 
ter was used in finishing the inside of the building, but 
all the rooms were ceiled with well-planed wood work, 
and neatly painted. The house is well furnished through- 
out all its various apartments, every way convenient and 
comfortable, and in all these respects, and in the general 
appearance of every thing within and without, surpass- 
ing most dwelling houses, and equalling many of the 
most respectable hotels in the country. . The hewed and 
sawed lumber, which, with immense labor and difficuUy, 



10 LAKE OF THE CLOUDS. 

was drawn up the mountain to accomplish the Herculean 
task involved in the construction of these buildings, cost 
the proprietor, when it had reached its destination, full 
twenty-five dollars per thousand ; and the whole outlay 
of this remarkable enterprise, inclusive of the cost of the 
barn, but exclusive of all cost of making the road up the 
mountain, will be nearly four thousand dollars. The barn 
is a good one of fourteen stalls for the use of the horses 
of those who choose to take their own to the summit. 

II. LAKE OF THE CLOUDS. 

From the Chin. 

AS you take your stand on the highest point of the 
bold, hoary prominence constituting the far-seen and 
far-famed Chin of the semblant sleeping giant which 
Fancy sees in the singular configuration of Mount Mans- 
field, your eye, in turning to the north-east, is at once 
attracted to a bright, broken spot, gleaming up from a 
small, woody basin lying at the foot of the first down- 
ward slope, and almost within the distance of a stone's 
throw from your feet. A second glance reveals to you, 
in your surprise at such a vision in such a place, a 
beautiful little sylvan sheet of water, or "lakelet," as 
Fanny Kemble, we think it was, so prettily designated 
the commonly called pond of New England. This lake- 
let, curving round among the dwarfed evergreens that 
partially embower it, is perhaps two hundred feet long, 
sixty feet wide in some places, and three or four feet in 
the depth of its waters. It has a small outlet, descend- 
ing in a hundred leaping cascades into the great gorge 
of the Smugglers' Notch below, but no visible inlet, 
being doubtless supplied by some copious spring, gushing 



St 



LAKE OF THE CLOUDS. 11 



up from the bottom. It is very cold, and of crystal 
clearness. No fish, we believe, have ever been discov- 
ered in it ; but we hope the experiment will be ere long 
tried of stocking it with the silvery trout, that pride of 
our pure mountain waters. 

There are several other points of interest in the locality 
of the Chin, and in the intermediate space extending over 
the long, depressed ridge between the Chin and the Nose, 
not included in this or any other View of the artist, of 
which some note should be taken in the connection. 

On the bed rocks of this summit arc found in places, 
very palpably marked, what, in the technicalities of geol- 
ogists, are termed the Drift Scratches, which, ever run- 
ning from the north to the south, are deemed, among 
other M testimony of the rocks," conclusive proof of the 
occurrence, in some remote age, of a great drift or ava- 
lanche of ice, imbedded rocks, and water, coming down 
from the arctic seas, that by some convulsion had become 
elevated above the southern regions, in a volume high 
enough to sweep over our loftiest mountains, remove 
their heaviest boulders, and scatter them for miles along 
its fearful track. 

Near the centre of the rounded surface of this summit 
may also be seen a curious circular depression, or basin, 
of the width of several hundred feet, in the top diam- 
eter, which may well be considered the dimple of the 
Chin. It is in the form of the old Roman amphitheatre, 
and could be made to seat ten thousand people, who 
might all distinctly hear the lowest tones of a speaker 
addressing them from any point of the rim above. 

This last assertion may contravene the generally re- 
ceived opinion, which, going on the usual ground that 
the denser air of the lowlands is a better medium of I 

% . — — — — tfo 



12 LAKE OF THE CLOUDS. 

sound than the rarefied air of mountain heights, would 
make out so high a summit as this a bad place for a 
speaker to be heard by a large auditory. Some experi- 
ments tried here, however, are said to show the reverse 
to be the fact. If so, the explanation is doubtless to be 
found in the still condition of the atmosphere up here, 
which, being free from the thousand crossing and inter- 
mingling vibrations occasioned by the multiplex sounds 
ever arising from an inhabited locality, forms, even here, 
a better medium of sound than the denser air below. 

About one third the distance from the Chin to the 
Nose, will be found two separated, rocky elevations, which 
pass for the lips of this semblant mountain giant. And 
a short distance farther to the south may be seen the 
remarkable boulder of perhaps one hundred tons weight, 
which stands so nicely poised on a small pivot rock, as 
almost to be shaken by the hand, and which, therefore, 
has been appropriately named the Balance Rock. 
Considerable portions of this ridge, as you approach the 
Nose, are covered with low, stunted, scraggly evergreens, 
among which may be seen aged trees, from one to two 
feet in diameter at the ground, and but two or three 
yards high, reminding one of the singular expression of 
the prophet, of the " child one hundred years old." 
There are likewise to be met with springs, patches of 
wet swamp, and old logs, exhibiting marks of former 
fires. And these marks of fire, indeed, but confirm the 
truth of the assertions of the oldest inhabitants, who 
inform us that, fifty years ago, the whole of this moun- 
tain, peaks and all, was completely covered with thick, 
living forests ; but that, about that period, a man, who 
had ascended the summit in a remarkably dry time, kin- 
dled a fire, which spread so rapidly as soon to enwrap 



OLD MAN MANSFIELD. NOSE AND PROFILES. 



13 



the whole heights in one devouring blaze, and compel 
him to a precipitate flight down the mountain, to save 
his life. 

III. OLD MAN MANSFIELD. 

Month of Cave, Nose, and Summit House, in the distance. 

THE view corresponding to the above caption, exhibits 
an interesting detached piece of the scenery of the 
mountain. It was taken from a point some way down 
the easterly side of the Chin, and more particularly to 
show the remarkable rock profile, which is seen from 
this place, and which the artist has designated as the 
Old Man Mansfield. The observer, however, will be at 
full liberty, we suppose, to view it as rather representing 
the real old man's baby pet, which he is hugging up to 
his Chin in his doting fondness, or, if fancy cannot be 
stretched to that, it may be viewed as the old man's min- 
iature, placed in one corner of the full portrait. 

The mouth of the Cave, which was also intended to be 
exhibited, and which opens a short distance below the 
profile, does not appear very plainly in the view. But a 
good side view of the Nose is here obtained, together 
with the distant Summit House, and a varied range of 
the wild scenery which characterizes this side of the 
mountain. 



IV. NOSE AND PROFILES. 

From the Summit House. 

TPHIS mountain seems to abound in profiles, formed by 
J- the configuration of the bold rocks jutting out from 
the sides of the peaks and the gorges. Many of these 



-« 



M ' „ 

14 NOSE AND SUMMIT HOUSE. 



are so palpable and striking as to be at once recognized 
as such by the most unimaginative beholder ; while nu- 
merous others, more or less perfect, will be made out by 
the more poetical from almost any point where a meas- 
urably distant view of bare, ragged, and perpendicular 
rocks can be obtained. This view exhibits two speci- 
mens of those rock-formed semblances of the human 
face ; one on the left, and the other on the right, of the 
bold projection forming the Nose, as seen from the Sum- 
mit House door. The Nose, which faces down within 
one hundred yards of the house, here loses almost all 
resemblance to the human appendage of that name, but 
appears rather as a huge and shapeless mass of precip- 
itous rocks. And if the resemblance could be traced at 
all, the lofty, projecting mass would more probably be 
likened to the battered and distorted nose of the bruiser, 
fresh from the field of the pugilistic encounter. No, not 
much of a nose is to be made out at this point of view ; 
for in this matter, as in a thousand other aspects of 
nature or of life, 

" 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view." 



V. NOSE AND SUMMIT HOUSE. 

From the East Side. 

TT ERE is another view of the Nose, in which more of 
J-i- the enchantment of distance is made to exert its 
mystic powers on the senses of the beholder, while, at 
the same time, he obtains a much better conception of 
the true shape and relative proportions of the peak, 
whose appearance in surrounding locations first led to 
the name by which it is now known to the public at 

5<9 , 



It 

MOUNT MANStflELD. 15 



lar-e And, indeed, there is no standpoint, from which 
t*e°softening effect of distance is more happily combined 
with that of the bold and rugged reality presented in the 
view, than here, or from which this peak strikes the 
senses more imposingly. The Summit House, also, is 
here dimly observable, in its comparative littleness, as it 
rises over the intervening forest, and stands up against 
the sky on the right, to cheer the eye of the ascending 
tourist. And the effect of all is enhanced by the pic- 
turesque aspect of the foreground, with its broad dark 
forest, and its relieving, gnarled, and bare-armed dry 
trees, one of which shoots up obliquely over all, with 
the appearance of a dismantled, storm-spared mast of 
some tempest-tossed ship of the ocean. 

\n additional interest is attached to this View, which 

was taken near the side of the road, a half mile or more 

i from the summit, by the fact that this point is the first 

i one where the eye of the tourist is greeted by a view of 

the peak and Summit House, in his weary ascent of the 

i mountain. 

YI. MOUNT MANSFIELD. 

From Stowe. 

mHE artist, having passed down the river a couple of 
1 miles, where the valley begins to expand into culti- 
vated meadows, and turned about to the west, has here 
given us a View which, for the first time, takes in the 
whole of Mount Mansfield, and shows it, with all the 
peculiarities of its configuration, as it appears in the dis- 
tance, through the surrounding country. Here the 
swelling forehead, the shapely Nose, the protuberant lips, 
and the more boldly upheaved Chin, all appear distinctly 



K- 



16 THE SMUGGLERS* NOTCH. 



marked on the top line of the mountain, whose magnifi- 
cent whole looms up high into the face of the heavens in 
its lonely grandeur. The Half- Way House, which does 
not appear in any other of these Views, is here dimly 
visible in the white specks seen in the forest, in the line 
of the Nose, about half way down this side of the 
mountain. 

VII. THE SMUGGLER'S NOTCH. 

rpHOSE who make the ascent of Mount Mansfield, and 
i then go away without visiting the Smuggler's Notch, 
will have missed witnessing, not only one of the greatest 
wonders connected with that mountain, but one of the 
most stupendous gorges to be found in this or any other 
country. This notch is the deeply-cut, narrow mountain 
pass, extending, with a small gradual rise, and with 
slowly contracting width, from the upper part of Stowe 
valley, where the road to the Summit Home leaves it, 
about three miles to the northern extremity, or the cul- 
minating point, at which it begins to descend, and rap- 
idly opens into the forests of the town of Cambridge. 
And thus it opens a way for travel between the two 
towns just named and the contiguous parts of the ad- 
joining ones, by which, probably, nearly twenty miles 
may be gained in the distance now required to be passed 
over on the roads at present taken in going from one of 
these places to the other. And it was partly because it 
afforded the quickest passage, but mainly because it was 
so unfrequented and forbidding in appearance, that those 
desperate commercial adventurers, from whom the name 
of the place was derived, often chose this pass for their 
route in running contraband goods from Canada into the 



J % 

THE SMUGGLERS' NOTCH. 17 

States, during the stormy period preceding the war 
of 1812. 

As this Notch, or pass, at first strikes the visitor, it 
appears to have been formed by the jutting almost to- 
gether of the two opposing, bold and precipitous sides 
of Mansfield and Sterling mountains. Yet on a closer 
inspection^ he can scarcely resist the conviction that these 
two mountains were once united in one ; and that, by 
some mighty convulsion of nature, it was rent and riven 
asunder from top to bottom, and its perpendicularly- cleft 
sides, in the exercise of the inconceivable power, thrust 
back far enough apart to form the dark and fearful chasm 
that here opens on his view. 

But as no words of general description, nor any one 
view which the artist could take, in such a place, would 
afford an adequate conception of this wonder of nature 
as a whole, we must descend to the detail of its parts, 
and such of the more striking of its features as we can 
best describe, and best succeed in bringing within the 
comprehension of those who have never had the oppor- 
tunity of seeing and judging for themselves. 

On leaving the last clearings of the valley, and enter- 
ing the woods, on your route to the gorge, you strike 
into the old smugglers' road, which, for the first mile, is 
found quite passable, it being kept open and frequently 
used by the nearest settlers for drawing out timber. 
Your road then becomes a mere bridle- way, and leads 
you along the banks of the gurgling stream through a 
pleasant, winding vale, densely covered by a thrifty 
growth of maple and other of the deciduous forest trees, 
the width of the vale gradually lessening, with your 
progress, and the mountain sides growing more and 
more precipitous, and shutting down closer and closer, 



-5? 



18 THE SMUGGLERS' NOTCH. 

on each side of your path, until you suddenly come to 
the head of the stream, and a break in the hitherto over- 
shadowing forest. Here, as you emerge into the light of 
this partial opening among the tree-tops, you for the first 
time obtain distinct glimpses of the great rock- walled 
gorge you are about to enter, causing you almost to 
shrink back in awe at the disclosures here imperfectly 
made in promise of what is to follow. But you are told 
by your guide to withhold your admiration till you have 
proceeded farther, where better views and of bolder 
scenery are to be obtained. You are then conducted 
along the more ascending, dry, and rocky bed of the 
pass, and soon find yourself in the region of the giant 
boulders, which, to the number of many scores, and the 
prodigious weight of hundreds and thousands of tons, 
lie, for the next half mile, promiscuously scattered along 
the way. At length, selecting one of the largest and 
most commanding of these boulders, you clamber up its 
rugged sides to the top, high enough to overlook the 
undergrowth and all the lower trees around, when all 
the bolder and more startling features of this tremendous 
gorge burst, at once, on your amazed vision. But we 
must check our emotions of the sublime, and again de- 
scend to the particulars of fact and figures. 

Within fifty yards of your standpoint, on either side, 
abruptly rise the broad, bold, rock-ribbed walls, nearly 
one thousand feet above your head, and so perpendic- 
ularly that a line stretched across from top to top of the 
highest cliffs above, would scarcely measure more than 
one drawn across below, on the level of your feet. The 
faces of these walls, however, are not continuous, but 
broken vertically by deep, ragged interstices along the 
upper portions, from which, as it now becomes evident 



THE 8MTTGGLERS' NOTCH. 19 

to you, those mighty boulders you have seen without 
understanding whence they came, have been, from time 
to time, disengaged by the action of frosts, or the jarrings 
of earthquakes, and plunged bodily, and with terrible 
force, into the depths of the valley below. This breaks 
the fronting sides of the precipice into deep, upright 
recesses, and broad, square-faced projections resembling 
towers, which terminate in separate pinnacles, rising to 
or above the line of the heights above, and often exhib- 
iting, in their sharp angles and rugged outlines, strong 
semblances of curious images and profile appearances. 
And here, and thus, these lofty rock-towers stand to awe 
the beholder, as they have stood for centuries, with their 
dark sides rising, gloomy and grand, out of the shadows 
of the valley below, and their dizzy pinnacles above, 
now basking in the bright sunlight, scarcely known at 
their bases in the gorge, and now dipping in the dun 
clouds almost daily rolling over them. 

Of these mighty serrated cliffs, there are, on the west 
side of the gorge, four or five ; while, on the east side, 
there are but three, which, from their bolder appearance 
and more peculiar configuration, have been honored by 
fanciful visitors with by no means very inappropriate chris- 
tenings. The one standing nearest the southern entrance 
of the rock-bound portion of the pass has therefore re- 
ceived the name of the Gate Pillar. The next, or middle 
one, from a fancied or true resemblance, has been called 
the Elephant's Head; while the remaining one of the 
three, from the thin, sharp, anxious-looking visage it 
seems to present in the shape of one of its upper crags, 
has been named the Miser's Profile. 

After you have feasted your vision upon the sublime 
scenes here disclosed as long as you choose, you descend 



g g 

20 THE MAMMOTH SPRING. 

from your stand and pick your way back among the long 
line of boulders, which now bring to mind, perhaps, the 
traditions you may have heard of the encounters once 
occurring among them, between the smugglers and the 
custom-house forces, when goods were hastily secreted by 
the one in the dark cavern holes around, or seized by the 
other r while fists and cudgels were flying, and the snow 
reddened by the freely-drawn blood of the combatants. 
And while thus musing, and noting the minor curiosities 
every where to be met with on your way, you at length 
come back to the entrance of the great rock pass, to 
examine the last remaining to be described, but bj r no 
means the least remarkable object of the place, which, 
urged on by the more imposing prospects in front, you 
had, on your way up the gorge, omitted very closely to 
inspect. We mean 



VIII. THE MAMMOTH SPRING. 

WE spoke, in describing the route up the valley to 
the mouth of the pass, of there arriving suddenly 
at the head of the stream. And so, on the first coming, 
does every visitor, and not only suddenly, but with 
much surprise ; for, but a few rods back, he had seen 
the brook still retaining its size, and looking large 
enough for a respectable mill-stream. And finding him- 
self obviously in the immediate vicinity of the head of 
the stream, he looks wonderingly around to see where 
the water can come from. But, on turning his eye back 
till it catches the stream, and then following it up to the 
foot of the ascending steep on the right, his mental 
inquiry is at once answered. And still half doubtingly 



THE MAMMOTH 8PBING. 21 



approaching the spot, he beholds, to his astonishment, 
rushing out from a narrow aperture in the foot rocks of 
the mountain, a volume of water, which forms a little 
river at the outset, and which goes merrily dancing and 
sparkling along down its wooded channel to the bed of 
the valley, as if rejoicing at its escape from its dark, 
mountain dungeons, and in now being permitted to revel 
in the light of heaven. 

To say that the amount of water discharged from this 
remarkable fountain would equal that of twenty ordi- 
nary first class springs, would scarcely give one an ad- 
equate idea of its size. It throws out not less, probably, 
than five hogsheads per minute, and would require the 
pressure of a considerable head to force it through a six- 
inch pipe. And here this immense fountain of pure, 
cold, crystal water has continued to pour out from the 
depths of the mountain ever since the memory of man, 
never discolored or swollen by the floods, and never 
perceptibly diminished by the droughts, that mark the 
rounds of the seasons. It can have no equal in all the 
eastern part of Vermont, and few or no superiors any 
where. 

It is said to be in contemplation by the proprietor of 
Mount Mansfield, directly under which this whole valley 
is located, to erect here, on the margin of the fountain, a 
neat, sylvan cottage. If this be done, we know of no 
place in the wide world so interesting and delightful for 
passing one of the sultry days of midsummer as this. 



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sc— n 

22 MOSS GLEN FALLS AND CASCADE. 



IX. MOSS GLEN FALLS AND CASCADE. 

AFTER travelling about three miles from Stowe vil- 
lage, and over a pleasant road, the seeker of the 
picturesque and beautiful is gratified by the sight of a 
remarkable waterfall, now known as Moss Glen Falls 
and Cascade. It is situated in a wild gorge breaking 
through one of the lower ridges on the north-western 
slope of the Worcester mountain. The approach, to use 
in substance the language of a cultured tourist, who 
had visited the spot, is very beautiful. The ascent over 
and around it, furnishing varying views of the deep cav- 
erns below, is easy and safe ; so that the most timid may 
enjoy the fullest beauties of the scene. The source of 
the stream which forms this romantic fall and cascade, is 
from a little mountain lake, lying some distance above ; 
and the water, after rushing through the deep, dark 
gorge, here opened through the wooded, rocky ridge to 
the extent of about one hundred and fifty feet, falls, as 
seen in the accompanying View, abruptly forty feet into 
the deep basin beneath, called Richardson's Boiol. From 
this it again rushes on over a broad, dark-hued, solid 
body of rock, spreading itself out into a rich, silvery 
cascade, and falling sixty feet into another basin, called 
Whitney's Cup, which is encompassed, on the one hand, 
by dark, cavernous, overhanging rocks, and on the other 
by a solid, perpendicular rock-cliff, rising to the height 
of one hundred feet above. The upper basin — Richard- 
son's Boiol — is a complete rotunda, furnishing a view in 
which, as you stand in the entrance witnessing the head- 
long leaps, the rush and roar of waters, together with 
the wild scenery that encloses them, you cannot fail to 



s«— — • 

MOSS GLEN FALLS AND CASCADE. 23 



be deeply impressed by the solemn grandeur of the 
spectacle. 

As seen from various positions around, the upper ba- 
sin, or rotunda, (seventy-five feet in diameter, ninety feet 
high, with an opening at the top only twenty-five feet 
wide,) the dazzling cascade, the down-plunging waterfall, 
and the dark, rifted chasm above, from which it issues, 
combine probably as much of the mingled picturesque 
and beautiful as can be found in any one spot this side 
of the Tyrol Mountains of Switzerland. 




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MOSS GLEN FALLS. 



LC- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 068 770 4 | 



SHsl of Wietos. 



1. Summit House and Chin. 

2. Lake or the Clouds, 
u. Old .Man MansField^ 

4. xose ant) pbofiles. 

5. The Nose from the East. 

6. Mount Mansfield fbom Stowe. 

7. View in Smuggler's Notch. 

8. The Mammoth Spring. 

. 9. Moss GrLEN Falls and Cascade. 



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